Posted on Mar 31, 2016
29
29
0
Navy's top enlisted leader is wrapping up job title review. Intent is to remove "man" from job titles, such as corpsman, to make them gender neutral. All Air Force members are referred to as "airmen" and three enlisted ranks include "man" in their title. What would you suggest as an alternative to "airman"? (You can have fun with this, but serious alternatives also are appreciated.)
Airman
Gender
Political Correctness
Edited 10 y ago
Posted 10 y ago
Responses: 557
20
20
0
Aviator.
E1 - Aviator Recruit, E2 - Aviator, E3 - Aviator 1C, E4 - Senior Aviator,
E5 - Sergeant (Realigned to be like EVERYONE ELSE), E6 - Staff Sergeant (Realigned to be like EVERYONE ELSE), E7 - Technical Sergeant (prior to the restructuring GySgt was a "TechSgt" so I think this would be apt),
E8 - Master Sergeant (Realigned to be like EVERYONE ELSE) - Have you ever tried to say Senior Master Sergeant on the phone?!?... screw that.
E9 - Chief Master Sergeant
E1 - Aviator Recruit, E2 - Aviator, E3 - Aviator 1C, E4 - Senior Aviator,
E5 - Sergeant (Realigned to be like EVERYONE ELSE), E6 - Staff Sergeant (Realigned to be like EVERYONE ELSE), E7 - Technical Sergeant (prior to the restructuring GySgt was a "TechSgt" so I think this would be apt),
E8 - Master Sergeant (Realigned to be like EVERYONE ELSE) - Have you ever tried to say Senior Master Sergeant on the phone?!?... screw that.
E9 - Chief Master Sergeant
(20)
(0)
(0)
(0)
TSgt Gwen Walcott
"Aviator" is what they call Swabbies that launch and recover off Carriers.
Already taken
Already taken
(0)
(0)
Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
LTC (Join to see) - We also use "Cavalry" without Horses... I'm not seeing an issue.
(0)
(0)
18
18
0
Let's just change the title from "Air Force" to "Aviation Coercion"
"Force" is just too aggressive a word to use
"Force" is just too aggressive a word to use
(18)
(0)
A1C Michael David Severson
Coercion is too menacing for the PC crowd... How about Aviation Assertion? ;-)
(0)
(0)
PO1 John Johnson
A1C Michael David Severson - "Assertion" means advancing a position in favor of another, and by God, we just can't have that, can we?
(0)
(0)
17
17
0
I think people being sensitive to this is ridiculous! I think my job title has nothing to do with me as a woman. What is wrong with these people! I agree with SrA Nadine Stacey! Man is found in woMAN, leave it alone. We need to worry about REAL problems in the military. Seriously, these people need to get a life and stop being so butt hurt! I'm guessing its the generation that thinks everyone deserves a trophy for participation and there are no winners or losers! What BS. Grow the hell up! This is the Military not the damn Girl Scouts!!
(17)
(0)
13
13
0
Why are we worried about junk like this when people are trying to kill us?
(13)
(0)
CPT Quentin von Éfáns-Taráfdar
Maybe that is the reason they are trying to kill us. They figure that any nation that can get as worked up about this as we are must be dangerously crazy!
(3)
(0)
Sgt Den OBrien
You are so correct. They really stepped over the line when the cadence was changed to: "THROUGH the rear, harch !!"
(0)
(0)
PO2 Gail Grace
CPT Quentin von Éfáns-Taráfdar - Oh man, your comment gave me a laugh, and I heartily agree!
(0)
(0)
13
13
0
I was an airman and I'm a woman, it did not offend me, nor did I waste time thinking about it. It should stay the same. I'm now a policeman in South Florida, I'm called a policeman and I would not expect anything different. Like the comment below, man and men are also in the word woman and women! Keep it as is!
(13)
(0)
13
13
0
After reading this question in reminded of a joke. A freshman from Texas was touring Haaarvard and was trying to get geographically oriented to the campus. So he asked an upper classman, "Excuse me, can you tell me where the library is at?" To which the upper classman responded, "You are attending Haarvard now not some podunk high school. You should not complete a sentence with a dangling participle. Now ask again properly and I shall answer you." And the freshman's reply was, "You are correct. I apologize. Can you please tell me where the library is at, asshole?"
It is irrelevant what word is chosen. The people asking consider themselves the upper classmen of some kind of prestigious organization and have lost sight of what the objective is. They are more concerned with inclusion than they are with fighting and winning.
It is irrelevant what word is chosen. The people asking consider themselves the upper classmen of some kind of prestigious organization and have lost sight of what the objective is. They are more concerned with inclusion than they are with fighting and winning.
(13)
(0)
SSgt Bob Lamary
Perhaps why we are not "fighting and winning" without the good leadership this country needs. Instead we have too many who are fitting and wining!
(1)
(0)
MSG (Join to see)
Two not so smart privates were promoted to Corporal, so they decided to celebrate. They went into town and partied with a couple of "ladies of the night. A few days latter, they developed the "Drip" and went to the clinic. They tossed a coin to see which one would get "the" exam. When Bubba came out, he told his buddy that we have Gonorrhea. The other Bubba asked is that bad? His buddy told him we have nothing to worry about because Gonorrhea is an infection of the privates and we're Corporals.
(0)
(0)
12
12
0
I'm a Jarhead and all I have to say is,"I'm impressed by the messages on the question. Don't give into the PC mentality. This movement is ridiculous and compromises centuries of tradition and spirit de corps. It diminishes our pride and cohesiveness as a military organization. Semper Fi
(12)
(0)
CPT Quentin von Éfáns-Taráfdar
Listen, you are going to ruin your "jarhead image" by quoting Latin phrases at the end of your posts. :-)
(1)
(0)
12
12
0
Our job is to be so militarily capable that no fool will attempt to engage us; and if that deterrence fails, to win our nation's wars. When that mission is no longer of substance, then we may have time for silliness.
May I give a parallel consistent with my attitude? In the 60s and early, pre-Z-gram 70s, the Navy had grooming standards that did not coincide with the street. Sailors went so far as to get long-hair wigs to wear off-duty. During those years, I was a junior to mid-grade enlisted man. My attitude then as now was: Surely you have more important things to attend to! And the "you" applied both to sailors AND the Navy. Let me translate: poor leadership should not be copied. On the one hand, there is great merit to the Confucian doctrine, rectification of names; but on the other, "man" is and has been for centuries a generic term meaning human being.
If the leadership of the Navy (or Air Force or Army ... or heaven forbid the Marine Corps), has nothing more on their plate than changing a rank title from "airman" to "airperson," then that leadership is at once foolish and unworthy of being copied. Our time and effort toward mission accomplishment are too important, too precious to be wasted on such superficial distractions.
May I give a parallel consistent with my attitude? In the 60s and early, pre-Z-gram 70s, the Navy had grooming standards that did not coincide with the street. Sailors went so far as to get long-hair wigs to wear off-duty. During those years, I was a junior to mid-grade enlisted man. My attitude then as now was: Surely you have more important things to attend to! And the "you" applied both to sailors AND the Navy. Let me translate: poor leadership should not be copied. On the one hand, there is great merit to the Confucian doctrine, rectification of names; but on the other, "man" is and has been for centuries a generic term meaning human being.
If the leadership of the Navy (or Air Force or Army ... or heaven forbid the Marine Corps), has nothing more on their plate than changing a rank title from "airman" to "airperson," then that leadership is at once foolish and unworthy of being copied. Our time and effort toward mission accomplishment are too important, too precious to be wasted on such superficial distractions.
(12)
(0)
CPT Quentin von Éfáns-Taráfdar
What I would like to know is what happened to generals like Le Pew. (Sp?) His division was trucked down from Kentucky to Georgia for some maneuvers. When they were over he announced to the division that on their way back to Kentucky he didn’t want to see any of his troops making wolf whistles, etc. at any females driving past the truck convoys. If he did he would dismount the entire division and they would march all the way back. The general’s wife and daughter drove down from Kentucky to pick up LePew in the daughter’s convertible. Since she had been away in college when she bought the car it didn’t have any post bumper stickers on it so it was not recognized by anyone in the convoy. LePew was in civilian clothes and sure enough as they passed some part of the convoy the soldiers started with the wolf whistles, etc. The general drove to head of the convoy, stopped it, changed into uniform, and foot marched with the entire division back to Kentucky. Somebody complained to his congressman and said congressman phoned the general demanding to know what kind of inhuman treatment he was meting out to his troops. LePew invited said congressman to come down to Kentucky and run his division if he thought he could do a better job of it.
(2)
(0)
11
11
0
One starts to think maybe there are too many people at the top trying to think up something to do to account for their billet and pay.
(11)
(0)
CPT Quentin von Éfáns-Taráfdar
Now there is something about which I had not thought and probably very true. Thanks for the "original" thought.
(2)
(0)
SSgt Bob Lamary
Outliving their usefulness and imagining some continued need for their continued positions is what keeps government bureaucracy so bloated; do we want the military to be like that?
(1)
(0)
11
11
0
CPT Quentin von Éfáns-Taráfdar
I burst out laughing when I read this! In Sweden there has been recenty a movement to do away with the pronouns "he" and "her" and substituting them with one for both genders. There has been all sorts of confusion as a result!
(1)
(0)
CPT Judd Tattershall
CPT Quentin von Éfáns-Taráfdar - Back in the day, during the earlier days of this brand of feminism, I saw article proposing to use a capital "E" for he and she. The idea was to be gender neutral and it sort of mirrored "I", the first person singular pronoun. As far as I remember nothing ever came of it and the idea was dropped like a hot rock. Silly then, silly now.
(2)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google